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DEVELOPING   SKILLS FOR BUSINESS LEADERSHIP- ‘WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS’

Executive summary

The current report focuses on the CSR issues in Indonesia and Brazil and deals with the campaign and implementation of CSR practices of P&G in these two countries. It deals with the illustration of the philanthropic and ethical issues of CSR that these two countries face and the strategies that P&G can adopt in order to establish CSR activities. The main factor affecting the CSR activities in these two countries is the governmental cooperation as well as the policies for application of CSR. Harmful effect of the company operations also acts a determinant for the barrier to CSR activities in countries like Indonesia and Brazil. Increased cooperation among the companies and the government is the only way to overcome this barrier.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

Corporate social responsibility refers to various responsibilities of a company in order to satisfy customer need. It is management concept where companies social and environmental factors concerns about their business operations as well as interaction with their stakeholders. CSR is basically a way in which companies are measuring their social as well as economic and environmental essentials. Along with this companies are responsible for address various issues regarding shareholders as well as stakeholders. This report is highlighted a broad range of issues that P&G has faced regarding CSR in Indonesia and Brazil and how they overcome it by their initiatives on philanthropic and ethical responsibilities. A campaign on “Winning hearts and minds” has introduced through this report.

2. Findings

2.1 Definition of CSR and different elements

The Procter & Gamble’s CSR strategies regarding philanthropic and ethical aspects have a wide range of initiatives and activities that will satisfy the consumers of their goods as well stakeholders from all over Indonesia and Brazil. According to Carroll (2016, p.3), corporate social responsibility (CSR) defines that a business have a common responsibility to address concerns and issues of stakeholders, which can have a significant effect on business. P&G’s mission and vision statements are the main pillar of its CSR practices and initiatives. They also have applied this practice in Indonesia and Brazil to achieve success from those countries. As per the views of Park et al. (2017, p.10), Procter & Gamble accentuate the need of high quality goods for their customers of Indonesia and Brazil to maintain philanthropic values. In addition to that P&G sets their organizational culture according to the ethics of Indonesia and Brazil in order to influence CSR strategies of the company. In order successfully manage the business; P&G have to evolve with the changes. Kadlubek (2015, p.510) stated that trends and social values are changing nowadays with a significant speed and managers have to adjust with this situation in order to sustain in this competitive market. P&G encounters a number of hurdles at the time of decision making however, ethics should be part of all business decision. According to Carroll’s pyramid ethics is placed on third step of the pyramid. A company should handle economic and legal matters at first than come to ethics part as ethical issues sometimes encounters legal issues. In order to manage those issues and make philanthropic and ethics as base of their Corporate Social Responsibility, P&G have figure out all the economic and political issues of Indonesia and Brazil.

Corporate philanthropy has always been a part of social corporate business of Procter & Gamble where business has responsibilities towards their suppliers, shareholders as well as employees and environment. Palihawadana (2016, p.4970) opined that corporate Philanthropy of P&G deals with company’s voluntary giving as well as voluntary work of the employees where they contribute to the achievements in social context. Philanthropic practices and initiatives refer to proactive social responsibilities which involves maximum of company to resolve social problems. This practice of P&G in Indonesia and Brazil results in huge success for their business initiative in those countries.

2.2 Identification of various issuesin Indonesia and Brazil

As per the discussion in previous sections, it can be seen that P&G is a global consumer service and production company. As per the views of Park et al. (2017, p.10) however, there are some serious issues regarding their corporate social responsibilities. Indonesia lacks transparency regarding the usage of modified raw materials like cotton, soy and corn as well as promotion of raw materials, which has a negative impact on economical factors of business.  Product and society responsibilities which are the main pillars of ethical practices are not so precise in Brazil as well (BBC NEWS, 2019). There are a wide range of problem regarding their political donations as well as taxes and subsidies which are violating their ethical and philanthropic values. Due to these areas of problem, relationship with companies and their concerns are not met properly. Palm oil, which is a main part of making beauty products of many companies, is the main reason for deforestation in Indonesia. New launching of consumer technology innovation in Brazil has also facing issues regarding supply of required innovative minds as the non literacy rate is very much high in some areas of Brazil. Lack of transparency in production and modification of raw materials affecting their services has resulted into customer dissatisfaction. Due to all these issues the companies in these two countries are not spending enough time regarding the packaging of products and safety variables of product which shows their less ethical behaviour towards consumers as well stakeholders of Indonesia and Brazil. These will lead the countries to noticeable loss with respect to FDI and social funding (pg.co.uk, 2019).

2.2.1 Appropriate reasons for including elements

Different elements of Corporate Social Responsibility are required to measure efficiency and   potential factors of companies. Consumer’s satisfaction and hygiene factors of communities related to education and sanitation are the main agenda of any company in context of CSR. However, Frynas and Stephens (2015, p.485) opined that these factors are not addressed in Indonesia and Brazil. Issues regarding promotion and modification of raw materials such as soy, cotton and corn have a bad effect on their economical context Brazil and Indonesia product market. Problems related to political donations and subsidies which need improvement by applying ethical and philanthropic concerns to their market strategies. Corporate philanthropy involves in making an effort in order to drive social changes. Aksaket al. (2016, p.80) stated that it is responsible for finding long term and sustainable solution to homelessness of people in that country rather than delivering unstable and temporary relief. In corporate level companies can donate money to causes that are designed for social change. As per the views of Scherer (2018, p.390), packaging quality and product safety should be on the top most priority of any company. In order to address main factors of CSR in these two countries ethical and philanthropy sections are the main focused areas in this research.

2.2.2 Different ways of influencing decision

Procter & Gamble are facing different kind of problems regarding their new initiative of business in Brazil and Indonesia. As opined by Spence (2016, p.30), customer needs varies from country to country. Understanding of customer needs can be done by immense amount of time spending on research to study customer behaviour and consumption of nutrition as well as hygiene and personal care in daily life in different areas of a country. In order to solve these problems P&G should plan strategies and implement them as per CSR ethics. Working with suppliers is also need to be focused in order to create a successful business venture in those countries. Deforestation caused by palm oil extraction in Indonesia is one of the main problems that P&G is facing. Palm oil is an essential part of many of their beauty products. Protest from various NGOs is going on regarding this and they are claiming to stop this practice of using palm oil (BBC NEWS, 2019). Their new launching of consumer technology innovation in Brazil has also facing issues regarding supply of required innovative minds and their training process primarily. As per the views of Carroll (2016, p.3), however, P&G is lacking attention regarding these issues in both the countries. These are the main influencing factors which have driven to choose ethics and philanthropy as most focused areas to solve these problems.

3. Analysis in respect with issues identified

3.1 Strengths and weaknesses of latest initiatives

A wide range of initiatives has been taken by Procter & Gamble in order to overcome these issues. According to Spence (2016, p.30), they have taken policies regarding human rights to relief the employees which lead them to contribute in success factors of their company. P&G’s Forest Resource Policy has taken the initiative to support universal human rights by their work with local governments and communities which can improve social, educational as well as cultural and economical condition of those communities in Brazil. Along with this P&G is committed to the practice of Global Sullivan Principles. They have introduced career guidance service for people who are seeking jobs which help the people of Brazil to overcome their situation. As per the views of Frynas and Stephens (2015, p.485), deforestation policies has been taken by P&G through a NGO to restore the palm tree forest in Indonesia. They have raised funds from several sectors of their organization to donate to the relief efforts.

3.1.1 Theoretical aspect of the strategy

Triple Bottom Line is a form of CSR in which corporate leaders are responsible for calculate various aspects of low line results in terms of economic as well as social realm regarding environment (Carroll, 2016, p.3). In order to apply this P&G have taken strategies regarding this concept. There are two ways by which this strategy can be implemented. First, company has separated the three elements of corporate social responsibility from the results that has to be considered independently. Second, company is responsible for obtain sustainable results for these three areas. As per the views of Spence (2016, p.30), sustainability refers to long term and regular maintenance to balance all three areas. Sustainability is very specific regarding ethics and philanthropic aspects. Social sustainability has been achieved by applying the fair trade movement to share opportunity wealth to their employees. P&G has taken significant initiatives in order to reduce the use of palm oil to their beauty products by which they can contribute to sustain the environment to secure the future of next generation.

3.1.2 Description of practical issues

• Change Campaign

P&G’s campaign of ‘Winning hearts and minds’ have spread on various countries including Brazil and Indonesia to change societal and environmental issues. ‘P&G Environmental Awareness Program’ has been introduced and come in action in order to distribute water purification tablets to those areas which are affected due to deforestation. In order to educate the underprivileged people of Brazil P&G has taken initiatives of different skill programs such as ‘Educating innovative future minds’ to train them as well as refugees, once-trouble young people and veterans of problematic countries. This campaign of Procter &Gamble gains millions of response and funds from the countries across the world in support of this campaign.

• HR management

HR department of P&G has help the management team by preparing various strategies regarding training of the underprivileged people as well as by providing them different topics of skill development which are trending in market. The company has developed a whole new tem of HR persons who are instructed to focus only in this campaign to figure out the after effect of this campaign.

4. Recommendation

4.1 Changing heart and minds campaigns

Name of the campaign	Environmental Awareness Program
Location	Indonesia
Duration	Six Months
Target People	People from areas of deforestation due to extraction of Palm oil
Process	P&G along with several NGOs of Indonesia has taken the essential steps for stopping the deforestation as well as find out substitute of palm oil which environment friendly.
Strategies	Usage of environment friendly product Policies for Banning deforestation
Stakeholders	Employees and Retirees

Name of the campaign	Educating innovative future minds
Location	Brazil
Duration	6 Months
Target People	Underprivileged people of Brazil
Process	Different child care societies of Brazil help P&G to initiate and implement this campaign to underprivileged areas of Brazil.
Strategies	Introducing different skill development program Regular training and practice of those skills and implement them in practical life
Stakeholders	Employees and Retirees

5. Conclusion

It can be concluded that in order to fight against different issues regarding ethics and philanthropic Procter & Gamble required taking several other initiatives and campaigns including two of their newly launched campaigns. Environmental awareness program are for serving the people of Indonesia who are suffering from not getting enough water and Educating innovative future minds program for train the underprivileged people of Brazil. These two programs will help P&G to implement and rectify their issues regarding CSR in Indonesia and Brazil.

References

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